FOX posts NASCAR viewership for 2024 season increase despite postponed Daytona 500

NASCAR Cup Series viewership this season on FOX and FS1 was up year-over-year despite suffering a weather-affected Daytona 500, the network announced in a press release on Tuesday.

It’s the first time since 2001, the first year in which FOX began to air races, that the network has reported a year-over-year viewership increase despite having a rain-postponed Great American Race. In total, viewership was up 1% (3.369 million viewers) from the 2023 season (3.338 million viewers).

🚨Weather couldn’t rain on the @NASCARonFOX parade this year!

For the first time since 2001, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season on FOX & FS1 was up year-over-year, despite a rain-postponed Daytona 500 📈 pic.twitter.com/f8zjgCiYAS

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 11, 2024

Excluding the Daytona 500, which took place on Monday instead of Sunday, the nine Cup Series races on FOX averaged 3.773 million viewers, up 4% from the year prior. The six Cup Series races on FS1 averaged 2.389 million viewers, a 13% increase from 2023.

The 2024 campaign was the first year FOX‘s lead broadcast booth included Kevin Harvick alongside Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer. Harvick joined the booth after retiring from full-time NASCAR competition following the 2023 season.

“My job is to have people say at the end of the day, ‘Boy, Kevin Harvick really gave me everything I needed to know about this race and Clint Bowyer really entertained me.’ And if we can do that, then I feel it’s been successful. I love what I do,” Joy recently said. “I love the people I work with, and I’d like to keep doing it as long as they feel that I can contribute enough for us to have a first-class telecast.”

FOX wraps up incredible 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season

The first 16 races of the season on FOX included many signature moments and close finishes. William Byron won the Daytona 500 after a last-lap crash and the following week, Daniel Suarez edged out Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in a three-way photo finish at the checkered line to win at Atlanta.

Later in the season, Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag at Talladega with 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan in attendance. Perhaps the race of the season to this point took place at Kansas, in which Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher to the line by a record 0.001 seconds for the win. Brad Keselowski snapped a 110-race winless streak the following week at Darlington. In the FOX season finale at Sonoma this past Sunday, it was Larson who took the checkered flag for his third victory of the season.